Plowshares Peace and Justice Center will host their annual Thanksgiving meal on Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on 1346 South State Street in Ukiah for the community. Plowshares is a community dining hall serving over 69,000 meals each year to those in need in the Ukiah area. Plowshares also operates Community Service and Work Release Programs. The food will be traditional Thanksgiving food including mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, turkey, green beans, and cranberry sauce.

People who are part of Plowshares Meals on Wheels program will also receive a turkey dinner. Plowshares has operated Meals On Wheels since 2001, which provides meals to homebound people 60 and over in the Ukiah Valley area. As people live longer and age expectancy increases throughout America, programs like Meal on Wheels will likely be needed even more here in Ukiah. Volunteers cook and deliver the food every day to about 140 Meals On Wheels participants and talk with them and check on how they are doing and if they need any medical help or extra attention. The program is free, although they do suggest a two dollar donation.

“When you talk to the folks on the Meals on Wheels program, the biggest thing is having that social contact that they get with their runners and drivers who know their names and the names of their kids,” said Traci Boyl of Plowshares.

The number of people Plowshares feeds during this time of year and month is up, Boyl said. They will likely feed around 250-300 people on Thanksgiving.

“We expect to feed over a hundred people in the dining hall and over 140 people for meals on wheels,” Boyl said.

Plowshare receives most of the food they use from donations, and the holiday season means more is needed. Friedman’s Home Improvement and their staff donated turkeys. AAA insurance donated turkeys and did a canned food drive, while Consolidated Tribal Health Project also brings an assortment of pies. Kids at St. Mary’s in Ukiah also did a food drive and brought in turkeys. Potter Valley 4-H will come in and wrap silverware.

The holiday season means people are dropping off donations in increasing numbers, but Plowshares still hopes that more people will drop off food. The organization needs donations to feed people, and they rely heavily on the community. They are taking donations for turkey, butter, red potatoes, corn starch, cranberry sauce, canned fruit, pies, half and half, green beans, and lettuce greens. While Plowshares won’t use all the donations for the Thanksgiving dinner, they will still have a use for them for later meals they serve. One of their most pressing needs right now is fresh produce, as produce is not in season and they have to rely on canned food and vegetables.

“We always need the food, we feed people every day, so it will get used,” Boyl said.

None of the meals would be possible without volunteers who show up every day and help. They usually have 25 to 30 volunteers a day, plus another 50 additional volunteers for special holiday meals. Boyl says that putting on the dinner and meal program during the weekdays is also an opportunity for volunteers to get to see each other and become friends. Volunteers run most of the day to day meal prep, and they get to know each other.

“All of our volunteers that come here, and volunteers run it, they always stay and eat lunch and sit and drink coffee,” Boyl said. “It’s also a little social time for them.”

Plowshares recently started their annual holiday fundraiser, which runs from the beginning of November and through the middle of January. During this time they need to raise around $86,000, and they currently at about $20,000 now. Anyone who wants to donate can go to https://www.plowsharesfeeds.org or can call at (707) 462-8582. The fundraising is critical for Plowshares, and Boyl says 74 percent of their funding comes from various community donations.

“A really large portion of our operating budget comes from this fundraiser that happens during the holidays,” Boyl said. “That’s how we operate, that’s how we are able to be here.”

Although the increased activity around Thanksgiving and Christmas can be stressful, Plowshares still enjoys the holiday season and the environment it brings. They have different programs around during the holiday season to brighten the mood. Having shelters around Ukiah also made things more relaxed and less stressful for people who needed a place to stay during the holidays.

“I think everybody is up,” Boyl “We have a lot more people interested in volunteering during that time, and so you get some new faces, and that’s fun.”